I feel much more confident now, and I can not wait to submit my revised motivation letter to the university! Language is a power, however, may hardly been stepped ahead for Chinese applicants. What you have done is of vital importance. Thank you!

November is so professional and helpful. She is patient with my abundant questions, looks carefully at my program website to give instructions to me and clarifies my mistakes with her professional experience. Thank you so much for your help!

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer your reflections. I’m really glad you have had so many fruitful collaborations on our site. I’ve reviewed the details of this case. I want to give you some reassurance if I may.

To begin, I want to reassure you about the document that you and Sarah produced together: You got a really good result. The document is high-quality and has been radically enhanced through the service process and is fit-for-purpose. I want to cover the two issues you’ve mentioned specifically in a little more detail:

1. The word count. Sarah’s final draft was 326 words in length, not 350 words (the word limit), about 7% under the maximum. You don’t have to worry about this! Being under the limit (to a minor extent like this) does not mean there is a shortfall in quality. Indeed, being precisely up to the word limit is not necessarily desirable at all. Why? Because it is content that matters. What Sarah’s done, is help you to keep your words finely-tuned; she’s helped edit unnecessary or repeated material so the meaning is clear. It is not helpful to your application to add more words merely to hit a higher word count. The purpose of words is to convey meaning. If that meaning is conveyed by words elsewhere, then additional words distract from meaning and imply a lack of precision about purpose. Not desirable in this context! That brings me onto my next point, which is…

2. The removed sentence. I have to tell you a couple of important things about this sentence. I hope you don’t mind! My intention here is to convey these things warmly; my goal is to reassure you about the document you received:

(i) The meaning of the removed sentence was almost exactly the same as the preceding material. It was a bit superfluous, and thus detracted from the document’s quality.

(ii) The removed sentence could be viewed as exhibiting a slightly “lyrical” quality. Now, I love lyrical writing myself, don’t get me wrong, but it must be deployed in apt contexts. If it’s out-of-place, readers sometimes interpret this as self-indulgence by the author. It’s where the famous advice by William Faulkner came from: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” Meaning: Sometimes these beautiful sentences we’ve lovingly created need to be cut for the sake of the reader. That’s why we have editors and advisors to help us when we write. Their job is to give us the reader’s perspective. And it’s tough. People get very attached to their sentences. I’m continuously battling this in my own writing, believe me! Now, Sarah’s judgement call was that (in addition to the meaning being conveyed elsewhere) the tone of this sentence wasn’t helpful to you in a professional document. I think she made the right call. But I want you to know: I understand why you might worry and I know why extra explanation is important for your peace of mind. Your peace of mind is very important to me—to everyone at ZHISHIQ. This brings me to my next point, which is…

I agree with you that a prompt reply after Sarah saw your message would have been desirable. In mitigation, I’d say, she had already completed work on the document for you really quickly as you requested. She uploaded the document, she knew it was excellent: Job done. She didn’t see your final message about the 24 words until the application deadline had already expired (the document was completed on the day of the deadline, within 24 hours of your feedback!) We don’t require advisors to be glued to their screens. But we do ask that they respond to new messages within 24 hours of receiving them. In this case, Sarah’s reasoning was that the deadline had passed, which is why she didn’t get back to you promptly. If she’d had a full picture of your concerns, as I do now, I know she’d have given you a more thorough explanation, a little like mine above.

I really want you to know that your work was prioritized by Sarah. She worked hard to provide a high-quality document ahead of schedule. She addressed all your needs as best she could. Given the above, we all deeply, deeply regret that you feel negative about the service.—Andy Daum | CPO/ coFounder, ZHISHIQ.com